water meter is a little bit cheaper for me

daxu

Hi,
My annual bill was 408£ berfore I converted to a meter.

After the meter installed (around 3 weeks ago), I checked the reading every weekend, and it is like 2 units a week.
We have 3 adults and 1 baby around 1.5 years old. 2 of the adults go to work daily and the other one (my mom :-) ) stays all the time.
If the meter keeps going this way, I will pay a little bit more than 300£ anually. So my experience is that meter is cheaper but not much much cheaper.

Hopefully this info can help people to decide if they want a meter or not.

GaryS

Likewise here.

Old house was a 3 bed semi - £360.00 per year average.

New house 4 bed detached - 3 bathrooms - on a meter and now averages £300 per year. (Based on last 3 years)

Cardew

It is difficult to make direct comparisons because the charges on the old unmetered Rateable Value system and on a meter vary so much depending on what part of the country you live.

Melissa22_Mum

I was wondering wether or not to have one installed. We live in a two storey flat in the North West, and our bill is around 260-300 a year just two adults and 17 month old. Don't really use that much water we use a shower connected to the taps rather than baths, the only main use is the washer and washing up. I heard once though it was actually more economical in every way to use a dish washer it uses far less water than washing up by hand apparently! Great excuse!

deanos

You can always try a meter as you have a year to go back to the old way you were paying.

little_miss_thrifty

daxu wrote:

Hi,
My annual bill was 408£ berfore I converted to a meter.

After the meter installed (around 3 weeks ago), I checked the reading every weekend, and it is like 2 units a week.
We have 3 adults and 1 baby around 1.5 years old. 2 of the adults go to work daily and the other one (my mom :-) ) stays all the time.
If the meter keeps going this way, I will pay a little bit more than 300£ anually. So my experience is that meter is cheaper but not much much cheaper.

We were also saving about £100 a year when we switched to a water meter, but found we could save even more by switching tariffs. I don't know about other water companies tariffs but Anglian Water do a SOLOW, where you have no standing charge but pay more per unit, but as we use less than 75 units, it works out even cheaper for us (2 adults, 2 children). Would it save you abit more to change tariff?

Ken68

Hi Dax...I went on the SOLOW tariff, as mentioned by Miss Thrifty, several years ago.
An immediate £100 saving.
And with rainwater harvesting even more savings.

terry-stoke

Hi,
I live in South West Water land, god help me!
I made the mistake of switching to a meter about 3-4 years ago. Our r.v. was £358, quite high, and I'd heard so many stories of people saving. Big mistake! The last letter from them asked for a Direct Debit of £80 per month! There is me, my wife, my daughter and her fiancee, we never wash the cars or water the garden, have an A rated washing machine, what more can we do? No, we haven't got a leak, I've checked.
So paying three or four hundred pound a year sounds good to me, on our total income, pre-tax, of £17,500.
Think very carefully before you jump.

Blackjack_Davy

I live on my tod in a flat and I finally had a meter fitted, I wish I'd had it done before because my bills are now only 1/3 of what they were unmetered!

flang

How do water companies calculate how much your water bill is going to be if your not on a meter?

ariba10

flang wrote:

How do water companies calculate how much your water bill is going to be if your not on a meter?

I asked that when I found out that in a street of identical houses, that two of us were paying more than the rest of the street. They said they could not tell me what system they use.

I went on a water meter and saved money.